dr. J.R. (Julia) Doornbos

NWO 2023-2026 (postdoctoral researcher)

Everyday Geographies of Being and Becoming Disabled

The city potentially has a lot to offer as a place where people feel at home and gain experience with various aspects of citizenship. Accessibility, encounter and mobilities play an important role in this. However, disabled people are often effectively excluded and marginalised from urban and public spaces. Through community-based participatory research and co-creation with social partners, the project addresses both a societal question and contributes to scientific discussion that addresses the complexities surrounding the daily lives of disabled people in a normative society in urban spaces.

Team: dr. Bettina van Hoven (project leader) and Julia Munuera Garcia (PhD student)

Erasmus+ 2022-2024 (part of Groningen team)

Digifolk Digitizing the folktales of a city – sharing the wisdom of the Other

This project aims at collecting and digitizing folktales, stories of wisdom, from ethnic, religious and racial groups residing in the cities involved in the project (Nicosia, Belgrade, Ankara, and Groningen) and make them easily accessible and freely available to everyone.

Project leader: dr. Maria Ioannou

PhD 2018 - 2023 

The Postcolonial Present: Everyday Geographies of the Indo-European Diaspora

Through capturing the everyday geographies of three generations of Indo-Europeans in the Netherlands, this research explores how colonial family histories shape their everyday lives and how these histories are transmitted from one generation to the next. This research takes a biographical research approach, using life story interviews, to gain insight into the ways personal experiences on a micro level are intertwined with colonial histories on a macro level. It connects empirical data of mundane experiences, identities and well-being to colonial family histories, to provide a critical understanding of colonial legacies on current places, practices and social relations. By studying these legacies, this research aims to contribute to the critical understanding and the opening up of larger debates regarding postcolonialism in Dutch contexts.

Supervisors: dr. Bettina van Hoven and dr. Peter Groote